If you run a basic internet search for the history of baseball in South Africa, you'll find a few articles that start with the game's appearance in 1895 and then quickly jump ahead to the 2000 Olympics. To discover what happened during the century in between requires some digging. You must dig past the greater popularity of "the big three" (soccer, cricket and rugby); past the absence of head-line grabbing superstars in the likeness of Babe Ruth or Willie Mays; and down deep through the decades of segregation and discrimination that conceal a large part of the story. If you dig deep enough, you'll eventually unearth a treasure chest full of the surprising and curious events that led to the unlikely rise of baseball far away from its native land.
As it turns out, there were a lot of people digging for treasure in South Africa towards the end of the 19th Century. Vast gold deposits had been discovered in the Transvaal Province near present-day Johannesburg, prompting a rush of prospectors from around the world. American miners with baseball equipment were quick to build make-shift fields. A league was formed (the original Miner Leagues?), including laborers from Canada and Australia, where baseball was already catching on. Teams such as The Old Stiffs, Benchers, Scrubs, and Wanderers played on weekends, while people passing through from other parts of the country took the game back to their home towns. With an elevation similar to Denver, line drives traveled swiftly through the thin air, while ground balls bounced sharp and fast off the hard, grass-less ground. A 1904 correspondence written by the secretary of the fledgling South African Baseball Association counts 58 total players in the league. Eight finished the season with a batting average above .400; with the league batting champ putting up a highly skewed .535.
As it turns out, there were a lot of people digging for treasure in South Africa towards the end of the 19th Century. Vast gold deposits had been discovered in the Transvaal Province near present-day Johannesburg, prompting a rush of prospectors from around the world. American miners with baseball equipment were quick to build make-shift fields. A league was formed (the original Miner Leagues?), including laborers from Canada and Australia, where baseball was already catching on. Teams such as The Old Stiffs, Benchers, Scrubs, and Wanderers played on weekends, while people passing through from other parts of the country took the game back to their home towns. With an elevation similar to Denver, line drives traveled swiftly through the thin air, while ground balls bounced sharp and fast off the hard, grass-less ground. A 1904 correspondence written by the secretary of the fledgling South African Baseball Association counts 58 total players in the league. Eight finished the season with a batting average above .400; with the league batting champ putting up a highly skewed .535.
The next big boon to the sport came in 1934, when a damaged Japanese ship washed ashore at Port Elizabeth; over 600 miles south of Johannesburg. The sailors were grounded for three months while waiting for another ship to take them home. To pass the time they played baseball against American businessmen and missionaries. The games were so popular that the Eastern Province Baseball Association was established later that same year.
Around the same time, a Western Province Baseball Association was forming in Cape Town. Among its original teams was the Cumorah Baseball Club, established by Mormon missionaries to improve their public image and outreach. According to an article in a 2014 issue of the Journal of Mormon History, the missionaries had been branded by locals as polygamists who were trying to steal South African women. Baseball was seen as a way for the church to let the locals get to know them better. In 1936, a journalist for a Durban newspaper - the Natal Sunday Times - praised the Cape Town team, writing "Their teaching lays down that a man must be clean not only in spirit, but also physically and mentally, and it is for this reason that Utah has produced such fine athletes... this team is a fine example of how Mormons carry out their teachings." The title of the article, Mormons are Better Understood, suggests that the team accomplished its primary goal.
In 1949, the Saint Andrew Dodgers (Cape Town) became what is believed to be the first organized "colored" team in South Africa (colored is a regional ethnic label for people of mixed European and indigenous heritage). More teams followed in the subsequent decades, leading to the establishment of non-white leagues. It's very difficult to find information about these leagues. This is probably because baseball was already in the shadow of more popular team sports, while non-white athletes played in the shadow of the white leagues. Playing in the shadow of a shadow makes it nearly impossible to be seen. During apartheid rule (1948 - 1994), non-white athletes were banned from international competition and relegated to lesser-quality facilities. In following years, this brand of discrimination became a rally cry to ban South African participation in the Olympics.
A turning point for the sport came in 1956 when the U.S. sent a team of collegiate all-stars to play a series of exhibition matches throughout South Africa. It was the first time an American baseball team - as opposed to baseball-playing miners or missionaries - had visited the country and it forced the sporting authorities to think about appropriate venues for the games. Make-shift fields with rudimentary bleachers were deemed satisfactory for low-profile local teams, but not up to snuff for top-level amateurs from America. As a result, baseball teams were given access to fancy rugby and cricket stadiums for the first time. Games in Johannesburg drew the largest crowds, topping out around 10,000 people, while elsewhere interest was more moderate.
With access to professional-grade venues, and interest in the sport on the rise, baseball was better able to promote itself and gain the attention of financial backers. This allowed for several important milestones in the second half of the 20th Century. Among them were the introduction of youth leagues, entry into the 1974 Amateur World Series, the integration of white and colored leagues (after the fall of Apartheid), and the first South African player to sign a U.S. minor league contract (Nick Dempsey in 1997). The national team broke through on the international scene in 1999 by dominating the qualifying rounds for the 2000 Summer Olympics (luckily, South Africa didn't need to compete against the higher-rated Australian team in the qualifiers, as Australia was guaranteed a spot as the host country). Since then, South Africa has also qualified for two World Baseball Classics (2006 and 2009) and several more of its players have entered the U.S. minor leagues - including non-white players. One of the most recent is 25 year old Gift Ngoepe, currently playing triple-A ball in the Pirates farm system. To date, no South African player has advanced to the Major Leagues.Heading into 2016, baseball's future in South Africa still faces many challenges. Forever taking a backseat to other team sports, baseball's struggle to recruit talent and win over fans is a bit reminiscent of Sisyphus pushing a heavy boulder uphill. Every time he reaches the top, the boulder rolls back down and he is forced to start all over again. However, the South African Baseball Union no longer has to push the boulder alone. Major League Baseball has made serious investments in the sport, helping to build a few nice baseball facilities and setting up training camps to develop young talent. Youth programs have spread to rural communities and it's estimated that 250,000 - 300,000 South Africans are playing baseball at some level; roughly ten times more than in the year 2000. That's not a lot when compared to the number of people playing rugby or soccer, but if The Old Stiffs, Benchers and Scrubs could see what's become of their 58-person Miner Leagues, I think they'd be proud.
Sources:
-"Baseball in Africa: Yankee Doddle's Own Game in Transvaal", The Washington Post, November 20, 1904
-"Game Follows Flag: Growth of Baseball Abroad is Truly Wonderful", The Washington Post, December 25, 1904
-"South Africa Sunday Paper Features L.D.S.", The Deseret News, March 28, 1936
-"Baseball Wins Place on Rugby Field: Touring U.S. Squad Arouses Interest of South Africa", Leonard Ingalls, New York Times, January 29, 1956
-"Welcome to South Africa", Joe Conner, ESPN.com: World Classic 2006, January 13, 2006
-"Baseball's Not Quite Cricket in South Africa", Kevin Baxter, Los Angeles Times, August 19, 2010
-"Mormon Impressions: Locating Mormon Footprints on the South Africa Religious Landscape", Booker T. Alston, Journal for the Study of Religion, January 1, 2012
-"The Cumorah Baseball Club: Mormon Missionaries and Baseball in South Africa", Booker T. Alston, Journal of Mormon History, Summer 2014
-South Africa member page, WBSC.org (World Baseball-Softball Confederation)
-South African Baseball Chatterbox, FreeTeams,com
